(click the image to see in original size, or click here)

Meta info:
Software: Adobe Illustrator & Adobe Fireworks (+ Canon S5 IS for the photo)
Time: ~ 1h
Idea: 2009/Nov/17
Finalized: 2010/Jan/05

This is an un-realised idea for a book cover. Because otherwise this design would not have seen the world, I think it’s a good trade-off to publish it in my Daily Design category, after a bit of editing:)

(click to see in original size)

Meta info:
Software: Adobe Fireworks
Time: ~ 30-45 m
Idea: 2009/Oct/02
Finalized version: 2010/Jan/04

In October 2009 a post card fell into my hands, it was promoting the Nights of museums in Plovdiv. I liked it, so I tried to re-create it at some point, in Fireworks. Then I forgot about it and put the file away somewhere. Thanks to @molif I now was able to find the file and finish it. The final version is not exactly as I is first imagined it, but I like the results, anyway! :)

(click to see illustration in full size)

Meta info:
Software: Adobe Fireworks
Time: ~ 0h 30m
Idea: 2009/Sep/22

This vector illustration (imitation) was inspired by an article in WDD, “The Difference between Art and Design“. As you may see, the first illustration in the article resembles mine, and a lot… OK, OK, if I must be exact, it’s exactly the opposite — I just wanted to see, if I can imitate their illustration in Fireworks — looks like it worked:)

As promised earlier today:

(click on image to see it in full size)

Meta info:
Program: Adobe Fireworks
Time: ~ 10-15 minutes
Idea: 2009/Dec/21

Total lack of realism, just vectors and lots of fun, while sketching the little ship (btw, the idea came while I was quickly showing Fireworks to a good friend of mine ;-).

An inspiring article in Smashing Magazine: Design Something Every Day! (even if you are not a designer or photographer, it’s worth to use 10 minutes of your life to read it!).

Lately I noticed that I spend a lot of time in reading all kinds of articles and tutorials about design (Web/graphic/print) and photography, twitter quick links, lists with “the best of…”, etc., instead of trying to create myself a vector illustration, try in practice a new CSS3 technique, or take some great photos — all of this, just for fun, or to improve some of my skills.

I would not deny the importance of reading a lot in a specific field, to check new tutorials, to study the work of other designers, to see long lists of inspiring links (or photos or illustrations), to watch for the latest news in the Web design field (CSS, HTML, AJAX)… But sometimes, this takes away the time that one can use to spend, trying to create something new, on his own — to write a short article/blog post, to shoot something nice and later edit the photo in an intersting way, to quickly sketch some vector illustration, to play with Illustrator/Fireworks/Photoshop, and all sorts of similar things…

In one word: practice is not less important than theory and reading!

Last year, I didn’t manage to finish a lot of the things that I planned to do earlier, at the end of 2008. Some of them, I didn’t manage to finish because of pure laziness; some others, for lack of persistence; others — because I put them away too much or was scattering my efforts, instead of concentrating them in a few specific goals! Thus, the re-design of my own website/blog “traveled” into the distant future; I was writing about Adobe Fireworks much less that I would like to; I didn’t find the time to help @molif with an amazingly good idea about an illustrations’ website; I didn’t publish any tutorials about Web or graphic design (with only one exception); the list is too long, so I’ll stop here…

And because my three-years old blog has more than one reader now (including its Bulgarian language version), it will be much better if I fail in front of all my readers!

So I challenge myself — in the next year, to create/publish every day at least one illustration — could be a vector illustration in Fireworks/Illustrator, or a photo, edited in an interesting way, or a drawing with a tablet (in Adobe Flash or ArtRage)… the important things is that it should happen on a daily basis, and to show it to the world — in illustration/design a day, or die! ;-)

Shall I succeed? I don’t know. But if I become lazy or bored by this, my readers will know first! So it’s maybe worth trying…

Was it done before?

O, yes. And some of the projects became very successful and interesting:

The 365 photography blog by Dustin Diaz
The Daily Monster

To start something new is interesting and funny! And I don’t think that 15 minutes a day will be an obstacle for me to take care of the new design of my blog, to spend my energy in my freelance projects, as well as with all of my other hobbies and new ideas!

So, happy new 365 364 beautiful ugly or strange illustrations in 2010! :-)

PS Because I already missed a day, I will probably publish another illustration later today in the Daily Design category.
PPS I also challenge Ani — do you dare to take the challenge? :)
PPPS (update @ 2009/01/05) Oh, someone else took the challenge, too! ;-) It’s cool not to be alone!